site.btaUPDATED Fisheries Agency Head Georgiev: Fishing Tourism Gaining Ground in Bulgaria

Fishing tourism in Bulgaria is becoming ever more popular and even goes beyond the borders of the country. Annually, there are nearly 250,000 visits of Bulgarians and foreigners to the inland waters of the country, said Dr Nikolay Georgiev, Executive Director of the Executive Agency for Fisheries and Aquaculture. In an interview for BTA's Ekaterina Toteva and Valeria Dimitrova, he noted that the annual revenue for the state budget from recreational fishing alone is between BGN 4 and 5 million.

Ever more citizens of the Republic of North Macedonia choose this type of holiday in the southern part of Bulgaria. Bulgarians, on their part, spend their holidays fishing in Romania, he said.

In recent years, interest in fishing tourism has been growing not only in Bulgaria but also in all countries of Eastern Europe, Georgiev went on to say. 

According to the regional structures of Fisheries Agency in Blagoevgrad and Sandanski, many tourists from North Macedonia buy a weekly ticket for catching fish, which is at a fairly low price of BGN 4. The interest of these tourists is in the trout fish species in the Bulgarian high mountain rivers in Pirin and the Rhodope Mountains.

The Agency's Executive Director reported that 242,595 fishing tickets were sold for 2023. According to him, this means that apart from people who come to Bulgaria for fishing tourism, a large percentage of the country's population combines this sport with their holidays.

In the first six months of this year, 132,000 tickets were sold. "If this trend continues until the end of the year, we will have almost 20,000 more fishing tickets sold this year compared to last year," Georgiev said. He noted that statistics on foreign visitors are difficult to make because, apart from the Executive Agency for Fisheries and Aquaculture, any fishing shop that has a contract with the agency can sell tickets. Fishing tickets are also sold by the various fishing associations in the country. Additional administrative capacity of the Agency is also needed to systematically aggregate such data, the Executive Director said.

Ticket prices

The annual fishing ticket now costs BGN 25. The ticket for men over 65 and for women over 60 is BGN 12,50, the six-month standard ticket costs BGN 15 leva, the monthly BGN 8, and the weekly BGN 4. The Agency also issues free tickets for recreational fishing for people with disabilities and for children under 14. The Agency's policy in recent years has been to encourage parents to take their children fishing. For the beginning of this school year, the Agency has planned to distribute fish plaques to children in schools in the country's major cities during biology classes.

Georgiev pointed out that the price of the annual ticket has not been changed for more than 20 years. "If we compare with all the countries around us, the price of our ticket is the lowest. When we compare it with the price of carp, trout or sea fish, it turns out that in Bulgaria the annual ticket is below the price of a carp," he commented. In his words, this price should be indexed, as well as the prices of all services offered by the Agency. Indexation is also needed for commercial fishing prices. The Executive Director of the Fisheries Agency did not say how much the ticket prices will go up, but gave the example of the Republic of North Macedonia, where the annual ticket costs between three- and four-fold more than the Bulgarian one.

Facilities for tourists

In many places in the country there are gazebos and barbecues near the fishponds, and there are also places where it is allowed to stay with tents or caravans with access to electricity. If one is looking for such an experience, there are enough places to visit in the country, Georgiev said. However, he pointed out that so far there have been no talks with the Ministry of Tourism on joint actions to boost fishing tourism in Bulgaria. "If such talks are initiated at the level of ministries, we would respond and give the best examples in the country, we would help to establish contacts between fishermen and tour operators," Georgiev said.

This type of tourism would help to extend the summer tourist season, because the best period of its practice begins in autumn, when the water temperature is already between 18 and 22 degrees. Then the fish become much more active in search of food before winter, Georgiev explained.

Legal fish farms in Bulgaria

There are currently 668 active fish farms in the country for freshwater aquaculture, which is dominant, and these are mainly carp farms, the Agency's Executive Director said. Trout, white sturgeon, and white carp are also farmed, and mainly rainbow and Balkan trout are bred in the Rhodope Mountains, the Balkan Range and Pirin. European or American catfish farms are also now appearing, for example near Varna, as are pike farms. In recent years, farms have been set up also for various sturgeon species - Russian and Siberian sturgeon, westslope sturgeon, which can also be found near Varna, the Studen Kladenets, Kardzhali, and Ogosta dams, where the largest sturgeon farm in the Balkans is located, Georgiev said. The boom of these fish farms is due to the EU funding under a sectoral programme in the last programming periods, including the current period.

Climate change problems

Analyses of the water temperature in fish farms show that it is gradually rising, reaching 29-30 degrees, and there is a decrease in oxygen in the water, resulting in fish deaths. There is also a problem in several strategic dams in Southern Bulgaria, where the water has dropped four times below its normal level, which also negatively affects the life of aquatic organisms, Georgiev said. The Agency is currently inundated with reports of fish in distress or dying in the Pyasachnik dam, as well as in at least seven to eight rivers in the south of the country. In addition to waiting for rain, the cages on the reservoirs are required by law to be moved to the deeper part of the reservoirs when water levels are critical, and this is already being done at Koprinka and Zhrebchevo dams.

The fight against unscrupulous fishermen

The Agency carries out inspections of fish farms at least twice a year - in spring and in early December. Outside of these checks, it is compulsory for an Agency official to be present at the time of stocking in all types of ponds to verify that the fish are free from disease. Stocking is not effective unless the so-called catch-and-release regime is applied, under which the fisherman may keep one specimen of the larger fish species and the rest of the catch must be returned in the ponds.

Unfortunately, in Bulgaria, only catching with electricity and explosives, is a criminal offence, while the rest of the offences fall under the administrative heading, Georgiev commented. For this reason, with the changes in the relevant law, it is proposed that the sanctions, which are not small and can reach up to BGN 4,000, become much harsher and not so much in their financial part as towards criminalization of certain acts, Georgiev explained. He gave the example of a fisherman with 21 statements of violation in force for thousands of leva for fishing with nets, and the amounts cannot be collected because the perpetrator has no money. Such examples, in Georgiev's words, create a feeling of impunity in society and lead to deepening problems with illegal fishing.

Regulatory changes

The Agency and the Ministry of Agriculture are working on amendments to the Fisheries and Aquaculture Act to provide for the possibility of leasing rivers to fishing associations, which would take care of their stocking and have the right to set their own ticket prices. Discussions are also ongoing with the National Union of Hunters and Anglers on the proposed legislative changes.

The law has not been changed in almost 20 years, except for a cosmetic overhaul in 2018 and amendments in 2003 and 2006, Georgiev noted. In the proposed changes, the Agency has used the experience of Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Croatia regarding the management of the fish resource, which, like in Bulgaria, is an exclusive state property. The Agency is currently responsible for all inland, Danube and sea reservoirs. Associations manage only a few large dams - Koprinka, Sopot, Dabnika, and Goren Dabnik near Pleven (Northern Bulgaria). Among the reasons for the proposed regulatory problems is the staff deficit and the workload of the Agency's employees, mainly in the fight against unscrupulous fishermen, Georgiev told BTA.